Akkarin and Sonea: A Smile
by Rilawa
Summary: When returning to Imardin from exile, Akkarin recalls a particular incident...


Akkarin couldn't help grinning broadly as he looked around them. Though this grimy, smelly part of the slums was quite unlike the luxurious Inner Circle or the prosperous Guild, it was still part of Imardin, part of his beloved Kyralia which made it a thousand times better than Sachaka's dry wastes. He noticed several of the dwells staring at him and hastily wiped the look off his face.

"Come on, it's only a little further," he said over his shoulder to Takan.

The faithful Sachakan smiled in relief. "I'm glad, master."

"I told you, my _lord_," Akkarin hissed.

"Yes, my lord. My apologies."

Akkarin rolled his eyes and looked back around. At that moment a small boy darted out of a street to his left, nearly collided with him and ran off down another lane without a backward glance. Akkarin shook his head and smiled at the boy's childish enthusiasm. As he continued forward, a little girl ran out of the same alley and crashed right into him.

Akkarin staggered sideways with the force of the blow but stayed on his feet. The girl however went sprawling down into the dirt at his feet with a squeal of surprise.

Akkarin bent down and grasped her wrists. "Are you all right?" he said, helping her to her feet.

The child looked at him. She had a tangled, shoulder-length mess of wiry curls and a dirty face, out of which two large brown eyes peered up at him.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I knocked you down."

The girl looked at him, startled. Akkarin guessed she was not used to being apologized to. "Um, that's…okay," she said hesitantly.

"Sonea!" Akkarin and the girl turned. The same boy who had nearly knocked into Akkarin stood in the entrance to the alleyway opposite. "Come on, Sonea, Harrin's calling," he said insistently.

"Coming, Cery," Sonea piped in a clear, childish voice. The boy turned and ran back down the alley. Sonea followed him, pausing to shoot a smile and a wave over her shoulder at Akkarin. He waved back, his own grin reappearing on his face. Sonea's smile was the first real one he had seen in five years and moreover the one that greeted him first in Kyralia. It brightened him up and awoke new feelings of wonder within him. He continued to think of the young perpetrator as he walked into the city.

* * *

Akkarin glanced surreptitiously about from under his hood. This part of the slums, Northside, was where he and Sonea had ridden through on their way to exile a month ago and, far before that, the area which he had passed through on foot with Takan, returning to the Guild after his years in Sachaka. As he rode alongside Sonea down a small backstreet alley, he tried to remember the events of that first trip into this area. He vaguely remembered reprimanding Takan for something…and there had been two children…both about the same age as Sonea would have been at the time…

"I hope the guards let us into the city," Sonea murmured. "It's cold."

Akkarin reached out and grasped her hand. "They will."

She smiled at him, the brown eyes he loved so much lighting up. With that image came the exact memory of the girl that day long ago.

"S-Sonea," he stammered, coming to a halt.

Her expression immediately changed to one of worry. "What is it, Akkarin?"

"Your face," he said, still remembering. "You were with Cery that day-you were going to meet a friend-you banged right into me; you fell." Sonea looked blank.

"I helped you up," he continued. "And you were surprised when I apologized-and when you were leaving you smiled at me."

Sonea's brow furrowed, then her eyes lit up. "You were that person? I didn't recognize you when I saw you again."

"It was years later," he reminded her, "and you didn't know that I was a magician."

"I definitely didn't know that," she smiled. "I wouldn't have guessed either. You were one of the few people who ever said sorry to me. I didn't think magicians could do that."

He chuckled wryly. "You must have had a really low opinion of us."

"I did," she grinned. "That's why it took Rothen weeks to convince me otherwise."

Akkarin hesitated. "Sonea," he said, "I'd like you to know; when you smiled at me that day-you were the first person to do it in five years."

Sonea looked shocked. "Really? I was?"

"Yes." He paused. "I never did get the chance to thank you for that."

"For my smile?"

"Yes."

"Then you're welcome." And Sonea smiled, her radiant, golden smile.


End file.
